What I'm Giving Up for Lent

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For Lent this year, I've decided to give up three things. They are as follows:

1. Cheddar cheese

This is a true test of my discipline. I am a cheese-aholic. Just ask my husband. But I am weak, and didn't think I could give up cheese entirely for 40 days. So it's the cheddar that's getting the ax.

2. Zulily

Have you checked out this discount site for moms, babies and kids? I hesitate to even mention it, it's so addicting. It's got clothes for you and the little (and not so little) ones, shoes (my major fashion weakness), home goods, playground equipment, kitchenware, and so much more. Too many Zulily packages have been arriving at my door lately. And so it's no shopping--window or otherwise--for me until after Easter.

3. Facebook

I'm actually not on Facebook that much. However, a good friend gave me the idea of giving it up for Lent. So, I'm setting it aside for the duration. One caveat: I will post every Thursday, and only on Thursday, when my newest newspaper column comes out. Girl's got to put food on the table.

But today is Fat Tuesday, so I hope you all eat, drink, and are very merry! Catch you on the flip side.

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Thursday Newspaper Column - Feb. 27, 2014

Hi, all!

Here's the link to my newest column at The Greenville News. Hope you enjoy!

Also: The Greenville News is asking folks to tag them on Twitter (@GreenvilleNews) and Facebook and Instagram with your own memories and photos of The Big Snow of 1988.

Newest Newspaper Column

Hi, all. Here’s the link to the online version of my newest column at The Greenville News:

“Olympic TV ads hit home with moms and dads”

It’s got Winter Olympics, parenting, commercials and dogs. Hope you enjoy!

I've Been Whupped

Folks, I’ve been whupped: by two wonderful but needy children, by a week of no preschool due to snow–during which my 4 year-old and I both had the flu–by a job I love but is a lot of work (yes, husband: I hear you. I know I shouldn’t assign so many papers, ’cause then I wouldn’t have to grade them).

Whupped by my final semester of graduate school (where I want and hope and try to stay engaged and productive), by this wonderful new weekly writing deadline (i.e. my new newspaper column), by a house in which the mess multiples like Hydra’s heads, by writing the next novel in any spare (ha!) moment I have, and by always–always–wanting to be in every single place at once, so my family won’t miss anything.

But I am missing things. So I’m not signing off here, but just stepping back a little until the summer. My posting will be sporadic, but I’ll be sure to link to my weekly newspaper columns when and if they’re available online, and I’ll keep y’all posted with any other writing updates. As always, I’ll drop in if I see something too great not to share. I will also try to update my author Facebook page with news and maybe share a little on my Pinterest boards (I’ve recently posted new stuff there).  

I hope you’ll forgive me and stick with me! And please don’t be a stranger: I want to know what you’re reading and doing outside in the great big world!

First Newspaper Column is Out!

Headshot for The Greenville News
by Paula Player Photography

Hi, all!

I'm thrilled to announce that my new parenting/outdoor/general life column is now up and running in The Greenville News! Makes me very happy to have a byline in my hometown newspaper again.

To check it out, go here.

And be prepared to read about Shakespeare and refrigerator magnets.

Winter Storm Pax & How I Got the Blues

Winter Storm Pax has officially settled in over our mountains here in Western North Carolina. Snowfall totals, NOAA tells us, could reach up to 14 inches.

Normally, this kind of news would have me pausing only to leap for joy before suiting up and heading outside with my entire family and a sled. But I've got the blues.

Earlier this week, my 4 year-old caught the flu. While she is now bouncing on the leather couch in between showings of Mary Poppins (a family favorite) and "Peg Plus Cat" (thank you, God bless you, heaven will repay you with cities of gold, PBSKids), I am now quarantined to the bedroom.

Here's my bed. Note the laptop, tea, and trash bag. That's for the plethora of gunky tissues. Out of the camera view is my Kindle, some magazines, my cell phone, the thawing ice pack I had to keep on my head when I woke up with a migraine (joy!), and Albuterol inhaler I normally only have to use for emergencies. Nice, right?


 
Here's me. This is no way for a snow girl like myself to spend the biggest snow event the South has seen in over a decade.


 
Sigh.
 
If you are in the path of Winter Storm Pax, I hope you stay safe and warm. And play in it for me, will you?!

Go Team!

I've lately been comparing my role in this wild hootenanny we call life to a juggler. It's not an old analogy: people, especially mothers, are constantly talking about trying to juggle the demands of home and career. Some people make it look easy.

It ain't easy. And I honestly think it isn't easy for the perfect people either--perhaps they just look better in public.

These days--to stick with the juggler analogy--I look like a clown in mid-fall, all my juggling balls in the air. So far, I've been catching them on the way down. But surely this will not remain the case. Certainly, they will all come crashing down. My goal is not to let them all crash down at the same time.

In my brand new Team USA Sochi 2014 sweatshirt. I love a good sweatshirt.

Tonight is the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. I LOVE the Olympics, but I especially love the Winter Olympics. Chalk it up to being a Southerner who's dreamt of snow most her life, but winter sports have always appealed to me. Some day, I'm going to write a novel about a biathlete. Because imagine the body and brain power it takes to cross country ski your brains out--an exercise involving all the large muscles and quite a bit of adrenaline--and then to stop, focus like a laser and engage the small muscles and the intellect enough to shoot and hit a tiny target. Astounding.

The Olympics, of course, are all about teamwork. From the arenas and their building and upkeep, the food, the travel arrangements, the planning to the athletes from each individual country relying on each other in a myriad of ways we never see as spectators. And then, as the TV commercials remind us, of course, there are the athletes' families: those people who have been cheering them on since birth, driving them places and providing them with the upkeep of whatever their sport entails, supporting them in innumerable ways and making sacrifices to do so.

All of it: teamwork.

What I have to remember, as I juggle these many-colored balls in the air--husband, daughters, home, grad school, career, writing--is that I never have to go it alone. I am part of a team. My husband is my key team member, and I'm incredibly lucky to have him in my corner. His sacrifices--from handling the girls alone at least twice a week so I can go in early and stay late after my night classes to study and write, to putting up with the inevitable monthly breakdown that comes screaming out of me like a train off its tracks when my graduate packet is due--allow me to do all these things.

Let me stop you here, lest you think feeding, bathing, and getting a 4 year-old and a 9 month-old to bed is an easy job. A job that anyone could do. Well, perhaps so. But it's a whole different ballgame when you're playing man on man than when you're the only one covering. When it's you alone, it's like running the gauntlet. Except instead of medieval crazy people coming at you from both sides with swords and rocks and spikes, it's naked screaming children with honey in their hair and poo poo on their hands.

But back to teamwork.

It's my job to use my time wisely. If ever a phrase were so over-used ... and so daggum true. It's also my job to finally accept that I may not do all these things well, not all the time.
Here goes....

And Go USA!